A.M. Roundup: Public (finance) enemy No. 1

Good morning! Expect bit more snow today and tonight before things thaw out for a few days and rain moves in. In other words, you might want to pull some of that snow off your roof unless you want to see it in your living room.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City and Nassau County, where he’s scheduled to deliver a version of his budget address at Nassau Community College at 10:30 a.m.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is speaking at 8:45 a.m. at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, where he is expected to announce legislation that would make it easier for the wrongfully convicted to recover damages from New York courts.

Times Union: At $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage was last increased in mid-2011. It’s below New York state’s, which went to $8 this year and is scheduled to rise again next year, to $8.75 and to $9 in 2016. Led by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, some are pushing for the $9 minimum to kick in a year earlier. There is also a drive in New York to let localities set their own, higher minimums. Well intentioned as that is, the better route is a national $10.10 minimum.

Daily News: With the well-being of America’s working poor hanging in the balance, the Congressional Budget Office has issued a destructive and ill-founded report on raising the minimum wage.

New York Times: Several Republican legislators are opposing Mr. Cuomo’s plan, calling it a “slap in the face” to law-abiding New Yorkers. This argument makes no more sense than it did in 1994, when less than 1 percent of all Pell grants went to prisoners. In both cases, education isn’t an either-or proposition. More than 700,000 inmates walk out of state and federal prisons across the country every year, and it is in everyone’s interest to make sure they stay out.

45 Responses

The Congressional Budget Office says President Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty but cost the economy 500,000 jobs by 2016. (WSJ)
As Thomas Sowell has said, economics teaches us there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.

Several points. First check out the people who got money from Flaum – a lot of money. Second, guess who owns the “potential site” that people are talking about for Henrietta. Third, casino’s are not the economic answer, just look at Niagara Falls; the American side. That city is going to end up just being the one casino. I don’t call that economic progress.

“With the well-being of America’s working poor hanging in the balance, the Congressional Budget Office has issued a destructive and ill-founded report on raising the minimum wage.”
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Except it’s the truth. Economics 101, when you raise the price of a commodity (such as labor) by placing a price floor on it, less of that commodity is purchased. Buyers (in this case, employers) will look for alternatives that are less costly. Demographic analysis of minimum wage effects have shown that it has the greatest impact on the young and minorities, by increasing the number who can’t find work. Without experience, it becomes more difficult to contend for higer paying jobs later on, as those locked out of the job market can’t prove that an hour of their labor is worth what the government has mandated.

How lucky would we all be if we grew up in a home where our parents read to us at night and cared whether or not we did our homework. How could any Christian deny the opportunity to forgive our fellow man from stealing or selling drugs. Current students act like they’re being punished in someway for being law abiding citizens, and have suggested in jest that they get locked up to get a free ride. Be my guest. Go get locked up and have a man in a blue uniform tell you when to eat, when to sleep, when to stand, when to sit, and when to take a leak. See how great your weekends are when they’re behind bars in a cement cage. You’re so lucky. The cost of getting a college education is high, but that’s NOT the fault of the men and women who find themselves in prison.

Our economy went into the toilet because of transgressions on Wall Street. How many of these criminals are behind bars? How many of lives did these individuals ruin!!! Yet you sick twisted people with your false morals want to reign hell fire down upon some guy or girl locked up for theft or pushing illegal wares. Shame, shame, shame.

When writing the post casino gambling budgets, the State Legislature should start cutting the State Police, the Office of Mental Health and other budgets that surround gambling, and have the casinos directly fund these activities, including taking the employees off of State payroll. Use casinos for their true worth, and lower the state budget considerably and directly. Yeah, what a joke, that’ll never happen.

The Congressional Budget Office says President Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage would lift 900,000 people out of poverty but cost the economy 500,000 jobs by 2016. (WSJ)
As Thomas Sowell has said, economics teaches us there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.)
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Actually, the CBO gave a speculative range of possible job losses , ranging from very slight to as many as 1(one) million.

As the NY DN editoralized, “In fact, more than 600 leading economists, including seven Nobel laureates, have co-signed a letter endorsing Obama’s minimum wage plan.

“The weight of evidence now (shows) that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market,” they wrote .

The money grubbing advocates looking to steal taxpayer money to give to politicians and their hired hacks and cronies disgust me. The League of Women Voters (quote “We would encourage him to do whatever it takes”) is mostly just an extension of the Democrat party now. Non-partisan my foot. At least donations to them aren’t tax-deductible, although they still enjoy tax-exempt status.

New York students’ math skills were ranked 17th among states and countries studied recently by the federal government. (NYP)
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A meaningless report whether it is looked upon as being favorable or unfavorable to America’s 8th graders. The deck can be stacked so many different ways in such exercises, depending upon what the tester’s agenda is..
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Singapore isn’t a country IMHO. Its a city-state with an exceptionally high cost of living, and very rigid rules that govern how residents, and their children must live. It is not surprising that 13-14 year olds would perform well on standardized 8th grade tests. The failure to perform would be a total embarrassment to each student’s family, and might even cost a parent his job or living accommodations, in this highly competitive, highly stratified tiny far eastern community.

Times Union: At $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage was last increased in mid-2011. It’s below New York state’s, which went to $8 this year and is scheduled to rise again next year, to $8.75 and to $9 in 2016. Led by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, some are pushing for the $9 minimum to kick in a year earlier. There is also a drive in New York to let localities set their own, higher minimums. Well intentioned as that is, the better route is a national $10.10 minimum.
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If a Federal minimum wage of $10.10/hr. is going to be established for every state, including places like Misssissippi which has an annual per capita income of $20,000+, there should be a 40% factor added in for states with per capital incomes that equal or exceed the national average, which is approximately $29,000 as we write. Surely, if Missisippi’s economy can stand to absorb a 30%+ increase in what they pay minimum wage workers, states like New York can afford to pay its minimum wage workers $14-$15/hr. for experienced minimum wage workers with more than 90 consecutive days of experience on a job site.

Legislative opposition to Gov. Cuomo’s tuition-for-inmates plan is bubbling, including from liberal Colonie Assemblyman Phil Steck. Criminal justice experts and the Legal Aid Society are hailing it. (AP/CapCon)
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Assemblyman Phil Steck, like Assembly person Fahy, has been looking for an issue to get his teeth into. Fahy, smartly, latched onto education, something she knows about. Steck, an attorney, is, it would seem, gonna grab the the college tuition for inmates issue and claim it for his own. I don’t know how much he knows about it though. Probably no more than what he learned in law school. But, regardless of what they say, folks, keep in mind that these legislators are running for reelection right now, even though they aren’t expressly saying so. As a practical matter, most of the money middle class students spend for college comes from Federal student loans and/or parental resources which would have to be spent before state funds (be they loans or grants) could be utilized.

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No hard feelings k thx bye. Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. was in hot water with a federal judge Tuesday after texting one of the witnesses who testified against him in his ongoing bribery trial. (NYP)
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If this isn’t jury tampering, what is?

The Department of Homeland Security wants to build a national database that tracks the movements of license plates. (WP)
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These guys in Washington are racking their brains at night trying to come up with ways to control the movements of America’s citizens, which, if implemented, gives another segment of their bureaucracy a job for life…. When will enough be enough?

The cost of getting a college education is high, but that’s NOT the fault of the men and women who find themselves in prison.
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You act as if what they did to get to jail wasn’t their fault either!
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How lucky would we all be if we grew up in a home where our parents read to us at night and cared whether or not we did our homework.
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Maybe you and Cuomo should spend more time fixing this problem instead of spending billions on “free” educations. BY the way, what benefit does a person get from a college education when they are in jail for life? Or won’t get out until after they are 60?

This Boyland creep is something else. He really is dumber than a box of rocks. Scary and sad part is, there are way too many like him in the state and local legislatures. They just haven’t been caught yet.

“You’re so lucky.”??? Because a lot of us made the right choices and didn’t commit crimes? That’s not luck, it’s design. With the exception of someone wrongly convicted of something they had nothing to do with, or people who commit crimes and don’t get caught, luck has little to do with it. Forgiveness is one thing, reward is another entirely.

What about raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, index it to inflation, and ALSO pass Obama’s American Jobs Act, which will create MILLIONS of jobs according to the CBO?
We will be MILLIONS of jobs ahead, and hundreds of thousands will be pulled out of poverty.
Or could it be that you Republicans don’t agree with the CBO if it doesn’t help your corporatist politics?

@Erik – you mention “money grubbing advocates looking to steal taxpayer money” – that is a perfect description of the Corporate Lobbyists, whom Fair Elections Reform would help us keep from OWNING politicians.

You people act like we’re going to hand inmates an education, rather than have them earn it like everybody else. Individuals in the correctional system are paying the price for their decisions and they ultimately have nobody to blame but themselves. If they have the wherewithal to get an education and stay off the street when they get out, then society wins. Shame on Assemblyman Steck, a civil rights attorney and Harvard-educated weiney.

Any enemy of public finance is a friend to the 1% Corporate Elite, who want to have a MONOPOLY on financing elections, & have politicians in their pockets.
But thanks again my Republican friends for bashing Reform; it helps illustrate who OWNS the Republican party.

@sammy may I need remind you that you think only the GOP is a bought party.. Do the names Espada, Sampson, Malcomb Smith, Halloran,Hank Morris, Shirley Huntley, Carl Kruger, and Kevin Parker.. Last I knew they were all Democrats.. All being bought and paid for by your so called “Corporate Elite” to gain permits for builds, pay for play, running for mayor of NYC and bribery.. Sammy I see no DEMS Leading th charge for reform. Andrew talks but stifles his own JCOPE and Moreland Commission. If a poitician has a “D” after his name, Andrew won’t touch them. If they contributed to his campaign its hands off. The GOP knows there needs to be reform, but REAL reform and ethics that apply to all and not just Andrew’s view of ethics. The most corrupt person in all of NY runs this state and is NOT a member of the GOP.. Look in the mirror Sammy and see its really the DEMS holding back REAL reform.. The just want a watered doen bill as Andrew has ordered them to.. Those in power get to make the rules. The DEMS are in power. Look at who is financing Andrew and tell me who is opposing reform.. Andrew is…